So why do we self-handicap?

Some people blame it on the "raging" party last night. Some people blame it on their friends. Other people blame it on God. These "blameful" people are nervous and searching for reasons as to why they give a poor performance on a task they undertake. This type of behavior is known as self-handicapping.\nEdward Hirt, an IU associate professor of psychology, has been researching self-handicapping over the past 10 years. He recently published an article on this topic in the latest issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology entitled, "I Know You Self-Handicapped Last Exam: Gender Differences in Reactions to Self-Handicapping." Assisting Hirt with the article were psychology graduate students Sean McCrea and Hillary Boris.\nHirt's research concentrated on men and women and their perceptions about self-handicappers. His study included several hundred people, each asked to read a story on a person who used self-handicapping as a way to excuse him or herself before a poor performance. The stories and subject matters varied in gender and in situations.\nOne such story involved a self-handicapping target named "Chris" who self-handicapped in several ways, giving his friend a ride to the airport or going to see a movie. Both situations unintentionally kept him out all night due to car trouble on his way home. Because of his car trouble, "Chris" was kept from his studies, and he could not perform to his maximum potential on his exam the next day.\nMcCrea said with each story, both genders interpreted the story differently. The stories that left room for different interpretations showed a bigger difference of opinion between the two sexes. \n"The more ambiguous the story, the bigger the gender difference," McCrea said.\nWhen women read these stories they responded suspiciously towards the subject. The research showed that women view people who self-handicap as having a bad personality. \n"One of the things we know is that women draw different conclusions, like the (self-handicapped) person is lazy, or has no self-control," Hirt said.\nMcCrea said women see self-handicappers as being irresponsible and having negative characteristics.\nMen who read the same stories responded with a much different result. The research showed that men who read the stories were more lenient and thought more positively of the subject. Men were more likely to believe there were valid reasons behind why the person self-handicapped and believed that the self-handicapper tried his or her best to perform at optimal ability, Hirt said.\nAccording to the research, men and women show a big difference on the value they place on effort. Women respond with little respect toward individuals who lack motivation and don't put forth effort, while men believe trying to the best of one's ability is all right, Hirt said.\nIU psychology graduate student Bridgett Harsh has been working on a follow-up research stemming from Hirt's studies. \n"Work is being done to attempt to look at the social networks of self-handicappers to see if this behavior may have an impact on the social lives of these individuals," Harsh said.\nHirt is also continuing this research on self-handicappers to better understand why people engage in the behavior. Hirt said the next step for them is to figure out why men and women think the way they do about self-handicapping. What the research is concentrating on is if this type of behavior stemmed from childhood; did this stem from the way children were taught in schools or by their parents?\nSo far, the continuing research has produced a few theories. \n"Self-handicapping seems, within scenario studies, to have rather severe interpersonal costs, even when the behavior is rather socially desirable," Harsh said. "Follow-up studies are attempting to examine where and how these differences in perceptions develop and how the social lives of self-handicappers are impacted."\nHirt said students in his classes have found this topic very interesting. \n"Students want to work on it," he said. \nStudents can get involved in this research by signing up in their introductory psychology courses or by responding to ads placed in the Indiana Daily Student. Involvement includes talking to undergraduate participants about their childhood and what they remember growing up. \n"If we understand it, we can come up with interventions to discourage people from doing this," Hirt said.